Innovative Training Networks - MSCA-ITN-2018

CALL EXPIRED
Deadline: 17 Jan 2018

Clusters

Entrepreneurship and SMEs

Innovation

Innovation & Research

Horizon2020

Research

Sociology and Economic Research

Fellowship

The Innovative Training Networks (ITN) aim to train a new generation of creative, entrepreneurial and innovative early-stage researchers, able to face current and future challenges and to convert knowledge and ideas into products and services for economic and social benefit.

ITN will raise excellence and structure research and doctoral training in Europe, extending the traditional academic research training setting, incorporating elements of Open Science and equipping researchers with the right combination of research-related and transferable competences. It will provide enhanced career perspectives in both the academic and non-academic sectors through international, interdisciplinary and intersectoral mobility combined with an innovation-oriented mind-set.

Scope:

ITN supports competitively selected joint research training and/or doctoral programmes, implemented by partnerships of universities, research institutions, research infrastructures, businesses, SMEs, and other socio-economic actors from different countries across Europe and beyond.

Partnerships take the form of collaborative European Training Networks (ETN), European Industrial Doctorates (EID) or European Joint Doctorates (EJD).

Each programme should have a clearly identified supervisory board co-ordinating network-wide training and establishing active and continuous communication and exchange of best practice among the participating organisations to maximise the benefits of the partnership.

The programme should exploit complementary competences of the participating organisations, and enable sharing of knowledge, networking activities, the organisation of workshops and conferences.

Training responds to well identified needs in defined research areas, with appropriate references to inter- and multidisciplinary fields and follows the EU Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training. It should be primarily focused on scientific and technological knowledge through research on individual, personalised projects.

In order to increase the employability of the researchers, the research training should be complemented by the meaningful exposure of each researcher to the non-academic sector. Secondments of the researcher to other beneficiaries and partner organisations are encouraged, but should be relevant, feasible, beneficial for the researchers and in line with the project objectives.

Substantial training modules, including digital ones, addressing key transferable skills common to all fields and fostering the culture of Open Science, innovation and entrepreneurship will be supported.

In order to reflect the new modus operandi of research supporting the development of open science, training should prepare early-stage researchers for increased research collaborations and information-sharing made possible by new (digital) technologies (e.g. collaborative tools, opening access to publications and to research data, FAIR[1] data management, public engagement and citizen science, etc.).

A Career Development Plan should be established jointly by the supervisor(s) and each early-stage researcher recruited by the selected network. In addition to research objectives, this plan comprises the researcher's training and career needs, including training on transferable skills, teaching, planning for publications and participation in conferences.

Attention is paid to the quality of supervision and mentoring arrangements as well as career guidance. Joint supervision of the researchers is mandatory for EJD and for EID, and encouraged in ETN. In EID, the joint supervision of the researcher must be ensured by at least one supervisor from the academic sector and one supervisor from the non-academic sector. These arrangements will be taken into account during the evaluation of the proposal.

In EID and EJD, fellowships offered to early-stage researchers should lead to a doctoral degree. EJD result in joint[2], double or multiple doctoral degrees[3] awarded by institutions from at least two different countries, primarily within Europe.

In EID and EJD, enrolment in a doctoral programme and the creation of a joint governance structure - with joint admission (EJD only), selection, supervision, monitoring and assessment procedures - is mandatory. These arrangements will be taken into account during the evaluation of the proposal.

Expected Impact:

At researcher level:

Increased set of skills, both research-related and transferable ones, leading to improved employability and career prospects both in and outside academia (leading in the longer-term to more successful careers)

Increase in higher impact R&I output and more knowledge and ideas converted into products and services

Greater contribution to the knowledge-based economy and society

At organisation level:

Enhanced cooperation and better transfer of knowledge between sectors and disciplines

Improvement in the quality of training programmes and supervision arrangements

Creation of new networks and enhanced quality of existing ones

Boosting R&I capacity among participating organisations

Increased internationalisation of participating organisations

At system level:

Increase in international, interdisciplinary and intersectoral mobility of researchers in Europe

More structured and innovative doctoral training, enhanced implementation of the European Charter and Code and the EU Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training

Stronger links between the European Research Area (ERA) and the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), notably through supporting the knowledge triangle between research, innovation and education

Improvement in the working and employment conditions for doctoral candidates in Europe

Increased societal and economic relevance of European higher education

Strengthening Europe's human capital base in R&I with a new generation of more entrepreneurial and highly-skilled early career researchers

Increase in Europe's attractiveness as a leading research destination, accompanied by a rise in the numbers of talented researchers attracted and retained from abroad

Better quality research and innovation contributing to Europe's competitiveness and growth

1. Eligible countries: described in Annex A of the Work Programme.
A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon 2020 projects. See the information in the Online Manual.

2. Eligibility and admissibility conditions: described in the MSCA part of the Work Programme.

Proposal page limits and layout: please refer to Part B of the proposal template in the submission system below.

3. Evaluation: The award criteria and evaluation procedure specific to Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) are described in the MSCA part of the Work Programme.

The maximum length of a proposal is 30 pages, excluding the annexes.

4. Indicative time for evaluation and grant agreement:
Information on the outcome of evaluation: maximum 5 months from the deadline for submission.
Signature of grant agreements: maximum 8 months from the deadline for submission.

Specific rules and funding rates are described in the MSCA part of the Work Programme.
Standard proposal template
MSCA standard evaluation form
Guide for applicants MSCA-ITN
MGA MSCA ITN - Multi-Beneficiary
Annotated Grant Agreement

Specific rules and funding rates are described in the MSCA part of the Work Programme.
Standard proposal template
MSCA standard evaluation form
Guide for applicants MSCA-ITN
MGA MSCA ITN - Multi-Beneficiary
Annotated Grant Agreement

Specific rules and funding rates are described in the MSCA part of the Work Programme.
Standard proposal template
MSCA standard evaluation form
Guide for applicants MSCA-ITN
MGA MSCA ITN – Multi--Beneficiary
Annotated Grant Agreement

6. Additional provisions:

Horizon 2020 budget flexibility
Classified information

Members of consortium are required to conclude a consortium agreement, in principle prior to the signature of the grant agreement.

7. Open access must be granted to all scientific publications resulting from Horizon 2020 actions.

Where relevant, proposals should also provide information on how the participants will manage the research data generated and/or collected during the project, such as details on what types of data the project will generate, whether and how this data will be exploited or made accessible for verification and re-use, and how it will be curated and preserved.

Open access to research data
The Open Research Data Pilot has been extended to cover all Horizon 2020 topics for which the submission is opened on 26 July 2016 or later. Projects funded under this topic will therefore by default provide open access to the research data they generate, except if they decide to opt-out under the conditions described in Annex L of the Work Programme. Projects can opt-out at any stage, that is both before and after the grant signature.

Note that the evaluation phase proposals will not be evaluated more favourably because they plan to open or share their data, and will not be penalised for opting out.

Open research data sharing applies to the data needed to validate the results presented in scientific publications. Additionally, projects can choose to make other data available open access and need to describe their approach in a Data Management Plan.

Projects need to create a Data Management Plan (DMP), except if they opt-out of making their research data open access. A first version of the DMP must be provided as an early deliverable within six months of the project and should be updated during the project as appropriate. The Commission already provides guidance documents, including a template for DMPs. See the Online Manual.

Eligibility of costs: costs related to data management and data sharing are eligible for reimbursement during the project duration.

The legal requirements for projects participating in this pilot are in the article 29.3 of the Model Grant Agreement.